
Jeffrey L. Vagle was a Lecturer in Law and Executive Director of the Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. His research interests include surveillance law, cryptography and cybersecurity law, electronic privacy, Internet architecture, and networked economies and societies. A particular focus of his work is the study of the societal, political, historical, and economic effects of government surveillance, especially among marginalized or disenfranchised populations. Mr. Vagle writes and speaks regularly on privacy, data security, surveillance, and other cyberlaw-related topics, and is the author of several law review and technical articles, including, most recently, “Furtive Encryption: Power, Trust, and the Constitutional Cost of Collective Surveillance,” forthcoming in the Indiana Law Journal. He earned his JD from Temple University School of Law, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Temple International and Comparative Law Journal. Mr. Vagle is also a veteran, serving in both the U.S. Marine Corps as an infantry non-commissioned officer and in the U.S. Army as an intelligence officer.
Call For Papers: The Cambridge Handbook of Surveillance and Race
By Jeffrey Vagle on March 28, 2018 at 7:59 am
The editors of the forthcoming Cambridge Handbook of Surveillance and Race seek additional contributors. This volume will bring together the work of leading scholars in such fields as public health, law, critical race studies, anthropology, criminology, sociology, history, political science, psychology, and philosophy to present an intersectional perspective on the issues of governance, power, and control as applied to racial and other minority populations.
"Neural Lace," Extended Cognition, and Privacy
By Jeffrey Vagle on March 27, 2017 at 3:42 pm
Cybersecurity, Unscrupulous Diners, and Internet Stewardship
By Jeffrey Vagle on October 22, 2016 at 8:57 am
The extended DDoS attacks over the past few days that triggered widespread outages and Internet congestion are more than a mere annoyance. Rather, these instances have proven to be increasingly sophisticated efforts to strike at core networking protocols—the infrastructure that makes the Internet operate—to render large portions of the network inoperable or inaccessible. Perhaps the greatest irony of these complex attacks has been the fact that they have been conducted on the backs of some of the dumbest devices out there—the so-called "smart" devices that make up the Internet of Things (IoT).
Technological Redlining
By Jeffrey Vagle on July 19, 2016 at 2:56 pm
Government Cheating on the Sotomayor Surveillance Scale
By Jeffrey Vagle on August 24, 2015 at 9:59 am
In her concurring opinion in US v. Jones, 565 U.S. ___ (2012), Justice Sonia Sotomayor brought up a crucial point regarding a democracy's natural acceptance or resistance to government surveillance. As you may recall, the Court in Jones addressed whether the government's attachment of a GPS tracking device to someone's car in order to continuously monitor their movements constitutes a search or seizure under the Fourth Amendment.
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Surveillance Is Still About Power
Since the Snowden revelations in 2013, surveillance has gone from a somewhat arcane term of art used mainly by scholars, spies, and tinfoil hat types, to a household word that now comes up in conversations on such far ranging topics as national security, law enforcement,
Content Is Content, No Matter How Small
Recently, Orin Kerr and I had a brief conversation on Twitter regarding the Fourth Amendment and the content/non-content distinction. Specifically, Orin asked those of us who subscribe to the mosaic theory of intelligence if some large amount of metadata can become content, can some small amount of content become metadata by the same logic?
Racial surveillance has a long history
The path from Laquan McDonald’s summary execution by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke to the reluctant release — over a year later — by the Chicago Police Department of video of the killing shines yet another spotlight on the disproportionate use of force by police against young black men and women and the failure of authorities to identify and punish this behavior.
Opinion: Why we all have a stake in encryption policy
In William Gibson's latest novel, "The Peripheral," he imagines a future in which people have the ability to effortlessly encrypt spoken conversations in real time, in ways that are unbreakable to the artificial intelligences deployed by governments to eavesdrop on everyone.
The Difficulty With Metaphors and the Fourth Amendment
The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution seems straightforward on its face: At its core, it tells us that our “persons, houses, papers, and effects” are to be protected against “unreasonable searches and seizures.” Before any government agent can perform a search or seizure, they must first obtain a warrant, based on “probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Ex-Playboy Playmate's Charge in 'Body Shaming' Case Could Send Legal Shockwaves
""When you do hear about lawsuits with respect to photos on social media, it usually is in a civil action," Professor Jeffrey Vagle, executive director of the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, told NBC News. "This is a big deal because it is a criminal action.""
If Apple cooperates with FBI, iPhone leaks grow far likelier
"Cases in which prosecutors have signaled interest in the Apple tool, or one like it, continue to pile up. In Manhattan, for instance, the district attorney’s office says it holds 205 encrypted iPhones that neither it nor Apple can currently unlock, up from 111 in November. Such pent-up demand for the tool spells danger, said Andrea Matwyshyn, a professor of law and computer science at Northeastern University, since its widespread dissemination presents a clear threat to the security of innocent iPhone users.
How Apple Helped Me Crack iPhones Like Clockwork
"“The government is making the argument that the past is prologue” even though technology has changed, said Jeffrey Vagle, executive director of the Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition at the University of Pennsylvania Law School."
Apple's Best Arguments Against the U.S. Over iPhone Access
"Indeed, the act wasn’t meant to lead to new lawmaking, said Jeffrey Vagle, executive director of the Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. One could argue that compelling a company to produce something -- code, for instance -- effectively does just that.
Hollywood Presbyterian: Is This Only the Beginning?
"“Health care is a particularly vulnerable sector with respect to cyber security,” said Jeffrey Vagle, a lecturer in law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and executive director of the school’s Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition.
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Taking Responsibility for One’s Own Data Privacy and Security–Is it Possible, and How? (Past Event)
For more information and to register visit the CTIC website.
8:30 – 9:00 a.m. Breakfast and Registration
9:00 – 9:15 a.m.
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Privacy in the Age of Pervasive Surveillance (Past Event)
Ours is a time of ubiquitous surveillance. Our actions online and in public are routinely monitored, both with and without our consent, using the “smart” devices we’ve embraced as the tools of modern self-expression, connectivity, and convenience. This is the age of the biometrically quantified self, mass governmental telecommunications surveillance, location-aware technologies, marketing analytics, drones, and Big Data.
How a Quaker’s suit against the Secretary of Defense still impacts cases over government surveillance
January 3, 2018
You have reason to believe you’re being monitored by the government, that they are following you and cataloging everywhere you go and everyone you talk to. The knowledge haunts you, and has a chilling effect on everything you do. But can you sue to stop it? In this month’s episode, the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles speaks with Jeffrey Vagle about his new book, Being Watched: Legal Challenges to Government Surveillance about the current challenges to government surveillance, and a seminal Supreme Court case in 1972 whose effects are still being felt today.